The 6th is just a term warning. The 7th one is the one that is technically a term hearing.

The ERJ rates are about $1/hr less than the 76 seat CRJ rate when taking the 401k matchings and XJTs B fund into account. I don't think the IPA model would be hard to attain with decent rates. No need to deal with the whole lower pay rate for vacation and training crap.

Because XJT doesnt have PBS and therefore lines are not constructed around vacation, training, transition, FAR conflicts, etc. Those trips get dropped into open time for lineholders to improve their lines before schedules become final.

 

I hear you on all that. My take is that it should be an option for a reserve pilot to have a line under certain circumstances. Especially when there is no possibility of being awarded one due to seniority. I agree, no one should be "forced" to give up their award based on seniority. But, Im sure there are other guys out there like me that would make a sacrifice for a reserve pilot if they had to. The old "do on to others as you would want done to you" thingy. A line holder shouldn't be forced to give up a line but rather the company should provide an incentive for him to do so to keep the pilot group, as a whole, happy. A small price to pay for a gain all around. Get where I'm going with this?

And yes I have provided feedback to the MEC on this. Just want to see if anyone else would support this sort of thing.

The same old crap ain't working so we need to start thinking outside the box.

 

PBS fully eliminates open-time as far as I understand. Currently at ASA we have tons of open-time on all equipment. Our reserve staffing goes to crap because the company uses them to fly all the open-time. Kind of a dumb model.

 

I do see where you are going with this, and I would support a voluntary provision. Don't we already have a provision that we can trade trips for reserve days with other crewmembers though? I haven't read that part of the contract in quite some time.

As long as a line holder isn't forced to fly a reserve schedule, I'd be for it. I would need additional pay credits to give up a line voluntarily, that's for certain. What if we had a higher monthly guarantee for reserve pilots? Maybe that would provide enough incentive for some to just bid reserve.

What about increasing the value of a reserve day to entice line holders to drop a trip into a "reserve relief" bucket. Let's say a pilot has a 4 day worth 17 hours of credit, and he/she is in search of more credit. If we assign voluntary reserve days 6 hours each, he/she could drop that 4 day into a "reserve relief" pot and have 4 days of reserve added to the schedule. Voila: a 17 hour 4 day just became 24 hours of reserve credit

 

Technically it's not open time because schedules aren't final. The ALPA scheduling committee builds X amount lines depending on how many block hours need to be covered for that month. The top X pilots bid on those lines. Any conflicts are dropped from the lineholders' trip. The trips dropped are traded or dropped by the lineholders for a 24 hour period on a first come first served basis instantly over the Internet. At that point, the lineholders' schedule is pretty much final. Then the ALPA scheduling committee looks at the amount of open trips left by the lineholders and estimates X amount of relief lines needed to cover those trips. They then publish a secondary bid for the reserve pilots with X amount of releif lines to cover the open trips. The top X reserve pilots that want one can bid a releif line. The remainder bid on the reserve lines. Once that bid is awarded, the releif lineholders have their schedules constructed by the ALPA scheduling committee out of the open trips left over from the lineholders' trip touching/conflicts using their stated preferences. At the end there is not that much open time left over and at least 10% reserve coverage. Once the releif lines are final, whatever is left over is there for anyone to pick up or trade.

This is the model that you hear XJT pilots saying they will never give up.

 

At XJT if you don't get used in those 4 hours, it's SO LONG.........

If a pilot is assigned airport ready during the evening, he is free to leave 30 minutes after the last flight has left, or after 4 hours. Whichever occurs FIRST.

Can't be assigned airport ready two consecutive days, nor more than 6 times in a bid period. Can't be assigned to report for airport standby later than 1300 in domicile on your last reserve day before days off.

 

I hear ya - I used to work day lines all the time and liked being home. To give you an idea, under the PBS system, they are saying 4 days won't make up more than 60 percent of the total trip pairings. But what someone else said is true too, we'll have to see how things pan out with the merger. And finally, if you are senior to me, then yes you should start aggressively job hunting : ).

 

You are a fool of you think Dual Qual is a good idea. The exact same argument applies to Captains flying the right seat and getting paid the FO rate. We should allow that too. It allows the company big savings, right? They get to have fewer pilots and can be more efficient, you get an increased QOL because you have more options! Tell me how that is different?

Guys, Dual Qual is increased work for you (which you will be proficient on) for less pay. I know Delta does it with the 757 and 767, but guess what!? They're paid at the 767 rates. Dual Qual allows the company to pay you 50 seat rates for Vacation, Sick Time, Cancellations, etc. Why on Earth would you give up a negotiated pay structure that, oh by the way, airlines with different sized aircraft use, for the promise of more flexibility? Did UPS base their pay structure for the fleet based on the smallest aircraft? No.

Do you also think that Crew Pay will be able to track this? They can't do it properly in the current environment but you're willing to give that up on the promise of a better life? I'm also curious about the failure rates at airlines with Dual Qual. I know Skywest has a higher failure rate, and I'm not saying Dual Qual is the reason why, but is it a factor? Again, I'm not saying we can't do it, but why would you give in to an increase in work and responsibility for less pay? QoL is not the answer as that is a factor that the company can control thru a myriad of other factors. If you want Dual Qual, demand higher than current 700 rates for the increased responsibility. Anything less and you're arguing for pay cuts. If that's the case, I'd like to see the proposal for Captains flying as FOs too, I want the total option to have a better quality of schedule and that will really let me make life great.

 

How about Long call reseve for everyone unable to hold any kind of line?

Two options come to mind:
-12 hr callout minimum before a trip showtime.
After assigned trip ends you will have a 10 to 12 hr period without being required to be phone available.

or

Continuous phone availability during scheduled work days, but with a 24 hr callout period minimum. (cannot call you with less than 24 hr from showtime)

The latter would be a huge relief to those that commute to reserve.

 

We will have to get higher than current 700 rates anyways since the ERJ is essentially the same right now. Which is why a blended rate is possible right now for all aircraft. Also, at XJT they can put a captain in the right seat but they are always paid at the captain rate.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think that this is the system XJT already uses for long call reserve. You are always given At least 12 hours after trip notification.